1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to a method for forecasting a supplier's future production requirements and, more particularly, a internet system for allowing a customer and a supplier to collaborate in forecasting a number of units of a product to be shipped by the supplier to the customer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The internet has been used in many different ways to connect customers and suppliers together in a business relationship. It is very common for a consumer to use the internet to find a product or service, compare the prices offered by various competitive suppliers, and actually purchase the product.
A manufacturer of a product typically must be able to predict future demand for the product so that sufficient quantities of the product can be manufactured in advance of the actual date when the product is to be shipped to the purchaser. Many different types of forecasting models have been used to predict future demand so that a supplier can schedule its factory production in a way that efficiently meets that demand.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,314, which issued to Payne et al on Feb. 3, 1998, describes a network sales system that includes at least one buyer computer for operation by a user desiring to buy a product, at least one merchant computer, and at least one payment computer. The buyer computer, the merchant computer, and the payment computer are interconnected by a computer network. The buyer computer is programmed to receive a user request for purchasing a product, and to cause a payment message to be sent to the payment computer that comprises a product identifier identifying the product. The payment computer is programmed to receive the payment message, to cause an access message to be created that comprises the product identifier and an access message authenticator based on a cryptographic key, and to cause the access message to be sent to the merchant computer. The merchant computer is programmed to receive the access message, to verify the access message authenticator to ensure that the access message authenticator was created using the cryptographic key, and to cause the product to be sent to the user desiring to buy the product.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,780, which issued to Levergood et al on Jan. 13, 1998, describes an internet server access control and monitoring system. The invention relates to methods for controlling and monitoring access to network servers. In particular, the process described in the invention includes client-server sessions over the internet involving hypertext files. In the hypertext environment, a client views a document transmitted by a content server with a standard program known as the browser. Each hypertext document or page contains links to other hypertext pages which the user may select to traverse. When the user selects a link that is directed to an access-control file, the server subjects the request to a secondary server which determines whether the client has an authorization or valid account. Upon such verification, the user is provided with a session identification which allows the user to access to the requested file as well as any other files within the present protection domain.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,643, which issued to Freeny, Jr. on Jul. 9, 1985, describes a system for reproducing information in material objects at a point of sale location. The invention contemplates a system for reproducing information in material objects at a point of sale location wherein the information to be reproduced is provided at the point of sale location from a location remote with respect to the point of sale location, an owner authorization code is provided to a point of sale location in response to receiving a request code from the point of sale location requesting to reproduce predetermined information in a material object, and the predetermined information is reproduced in a material object at the point of sale location in response to receiving the owner authorization code.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,017, which issued to Heckermann et al on Dec. 30, 1997, describes a collaborative filtering utilizing a belief network. The disclosed system provides an improved collaborative filtering system by utilizing a belief network, which is sometimes known as a Bayesian network. The disclosed system learns a belief network using both prior knowledge obtained from an expert in a given field of decision making and a database containing empirical data obtained from many people. The empirical data contains attributes of users as well as their preferences in the field of decision making. After initially learning the belief network, the belief network is relearned at various intervals when additional attributes are identified as having a causal effect on the preferences and data for these additional attributes can be gathered. This relearning allows the belief network to improve its accuracy in predicting preferences of a user. Upon iteration of relearning, a cluster model is automatically generated that best predicts the data in the database. After relearning the belief network a number of times, the belief network is used to predict the preferences of a user using probabilistic inference. In performing a probabilistic inference, the known attributes of the user are received and the belief network is accessed to determine the probability of the unknown preferences of the user given the known attributes. Based on these probabilities, the preference most likely to be desired by the user can be predicted.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,098,893, which issued to Berglund et al on Aug. 8, 2000, describes a comfort control system incorporating weather forecast data and a method for operating such a system. In a comfort controls system for multiple buildings, whether residential, commercial or industrial, a weather forecast unit sends weather forecast data over the internet to a building management provider which handles building management services for a number of clients, each having a number of buildings and properties. At the provider's reception station, data on the external building characteristics of all the buildings are complied with the received data and then fed to the appropriate building management controls system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,415, which issued to Blumberg on May 29, 2001, describes a corporate and entertainment management interactive system using a computer network. A system, method, and apparatus is provided for a computerized management of a method of corporate, business or sports management by a remote party comprising relating a current database of an entity. For instance, in sports management substantially real time management is possible. Data of a player together with a historical database related to that player and decisions can be transmitted. This is communicated between a central database processing resource and at least one remote party. A remote party is permitted to access the database and access designated data from the database, and input and output data. Voting and management of the player, team, or business is possible in substantially real time or near real time by the remote party. A remote user can vote on financial compensation for a player, a coach or a team and/or for a bonus for a player, team or game. Similarly, hiring and firing decisions can be made. Shareholders, fans or customers of an entertainment business such as sports can be more interactively involved in all aspects of management and ownership duties and thus be more thoroughly entertained.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,668, which issued to Vanderveldt et al on Jul. 24, 2001, describes a system and method for dynamic data-mining and on-line communication of customized information. A method and system for dynamically searching databases in response to a query is provided by the present invention. More specifically, a system and method for dynamic data-mining and on-line communication of customized information. This method includes the steps of first creating a search-specific profile. This search-specific profile is then input into a data-mining search engine. The data-mining search engine will mine the search-specific profile to determine topic of interests. These topics of interests are output to at least one search tool. These search tools match the topics of interests to at least one destination data site wherein the destination data sites are evaluated to determine if relevant information is present in the destination data site. Relevant information is filtered and presented to the user making the inquiry.
The patents described above are hereby expressly incorporated by reference in the description of the present invention.
Manufacturers must be able to forecast future demand of their products in order to schedule factory production, purchase raw materials, provide sufficient inventory buildup, and hire personnel if needed. Forecasts of future demand are often made as a function of the overall national economy in combination with analyses of both short term and long term trends. It would be significantly beneficial if a more accurate and current system could be developed that actually allows a manufacturer to use forecasts which are made by its own customers with regard to their predicted demand of the supplier's products in the future.